place." "How do you account for it?" said I. "Can't say, but it's so; something in the country and people; somehow Law rules here, and it don't there. Well, good-bye, come and give us a look in some day,—so long!"
I began to think that my lines were cast in pleasant places, and with a people with whom it will be a real pleasure to work; and in good heart I got back in time for the choir practice in All Saints' Church; some boys, ladies, and men, an amateur, capable organist and choirmaster, and harmonium.
Our Diocese, here, extends thirty miles to the north, to the Mawhera, Anglicé "Grey River," where there is a considerable town, with rich fields adjoining, and seventy miles southward, including the gold field at Ross. Lately I have visited both these centres, and have arranged for Church building, and services so soon as my colleague arrives from England. There is no road as yet to either place, but coaches run along the beach, fitted with very broad wheels so as not to sink in the sand. It is a standing joke, but also a fact, that after heavy surf much black sand, with traces of gold, is thrown up on the beach, and that the driver makes something after the journey by carefully washing the wheels and bed of his coach. At Greymouth I had an enthusiastic meeting, and liberal contributions for the church, which is to be begun at once. The place is prosperous, most of the gold found here differing from that near Hokitika; much larger, nuggety and rich. Entering one of the Banks, I found it was their smelting day; miners bring their gold to be assayed, and receive its full value before it is melted and moulded into ingots. On a counter stood a good-sized copper urn, sixteen
